ADV-NEWS, Army Blocks Disability Paperwork Aid

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...oryId=18492376

January 29, 2008 · Army officials in upstate New York instructed
representatives from the Department of Veterans Affairs not to help
disabled soldiers at Fort Drum Army base with their military
disability paperwork last year. That paperwork can be crucial because
it helps determine whether soldiers will get annual disability
payments and health care after they're discharged.

Now soldiers at Fort Drum say they feel betrayed by the institutions
that are supposed to support them. The soldiers want to know why the
Army would want to stop them from getting help with their disability
paperwork and why the VA- whose mission is to help veterans - would
agree to the Army's request.

'A Worn Pair of Boots'

One disabled soldier, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because
he fears retaliation from the military, says it feels like a slap in
the face.

"To be tossed aside like a worn-out pair of boots is pretty
disheartening," the soldier says. "I always believed the Army would
take care of me if I did the best I could, and I've done that."

At a restaurant near Fort Drum, the soldier described his first
briefing with the VA office on base. According to the soldier, the VA
official told a classroom full of injured troops, "We cannot help you
review the narrative summaries of your medical problems." The official
said the VA used to help soldiers with the paperwork, but Army
officials saw soldiers from Fort Drum getting higher disability
ratings with the VA's help than soldiers from other bases. The Army
told the VA to stop helping Fort Drum soldiers describe their army
injuries, and the VA did as it was told.

It's unclear why the Army wanted to stop the soldiers from getting
help with the disability paperwork. Cynthia Vaughan, spokeswoman for
the Army surgeon general, says the VA was not doing anything wrong by
helping soldiers at Fort Drum.

"There is no Army policy on outside help in reviewing and/or assisting
soldiers in rewriting their narratives during the 10-day period which
they have to review them," Vaughan says.

She says the officers who asked the VA to stop helping Fort Drum's
soldiers were part of what the Army calls a "Tiger Team"- an ad-hoc
group assigned to investigate, in this case, medical disability
benefits.

According to Army spokesman George Wright, the Tiger Team thought the
VA should not be helping soldiers with their medical documents. The
Army delivered that message to VA officials in Buffalo, N.Y., who went
along with the request, even though the VA's assistance complied with
Army policy.

The Army declined to provide any information about the Tiger Team
members' identities or their motivations in asking the VA to stop
reviewing the soldiers' paperwork. However, private attorney Mara
Hurwitt points out that the Army has a financial incentive to keep
soldiers' disability ratings low.

"The more soldiers you have who get disability retirements, the more
retirement pay is coming out of your budget," Hurwitt says.

Qualified to Help?

Another question is why the VA would go along with the Army's request.

Tom Pamperin, deputy director of the VA's compensation and pension
service, believes VA officers are not qualified to help with soldiers'
disability paperwork.

"We do not train our employees in the intricacies of the Defense
Department's disability evaluation system, so we would feel that it
would be inappropriate for our employees to apply VA standards to a
Defense Department process," Pamperin says.

But Hurwitt argues the VA is more equipped than anyone to help
soldiers with their paperwork.

"VA counselors understand the disabilities, what the different kinds
of conditions are, how they should be properly described in the
paperwork," Hurwitt says.

She points out that VA officials have to look at a soldier's medical
history anyway to counsel him or her on VA benefits, which are
separate from Army benefits.

"Really what it comes down to is you're just helping the soldier get
what he's entitled to under law," Hurwitt says.

System 'Unfair'

This is just the latest in a string of controversies about disability
payments for injured veterans.

Former Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala, who
co-chaired President Bush's recent commission on veterans' care, says
stories like this one show how the whole disability rating system is
broken and needs to change.

The system is "fundamentally unfair," according to Shalala, "and
that's the point about the need for reform in the system. It has to be
reformed for everyone."